“Unless the Lord builds the house, their labor is in vain who build it.” – Psalm 172:1
For 300 years, the Lord has been building a house, here
at the corner of Pollock & Middle Streets in downtown New Bern. I am
certain that there were times when the labor of the people working with God was
in vain because they put their own needs or desires ahead of what God actually
wanted this place to be and who God wanted this church to be for this community
and for the world. But if their labor had been too much in vain, we would not
be here, having an Annual Meeting in the midst of our 300th Year. For
a nation that is only 239 years old, a community of faithful worshipers
gathering for 300 years is not too shabby, it it!?
As I prayed about what to say today, both looking at our
Scripture and knowing it was our Annual Meeting, I had running through my head
parts of the sermon Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preached last Sunday at his
installation. He has been talking for a while, since before his election this
summer, about a Jesus Movement to help bring reconciliation and justice to our
world, calling on Christians and non-Christians alike to look at the teachings
of Jesus for how we can turn the world upside down, which is to really turn it
right side up. He cited Jesus’ interaction with the young lawyer who asked him
which was the greatest law, to which Jesus replied, “’You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets.” (Matthew 27:37-40) Bishop Curry continued:
This
is really a stunning declaration. On these two—love of God and love of your
neighbor—hang, hinge, depend ALL the law and the prophets.
Everything
Moses taught.
Everything
the prophets thundered forth about justice.
Everything
in the Bible.
True
religion.
It’s
about love of God and the neighbor.
If
it’s not about love, then it’s not about God.[1]
The
other piece that has stuck with me, and you’ll have to watch the video because
it wasn’t in the transcript that was made available, he said part of the Jesus
Movement is to look at the world ask what is possible, not merely to be content
with the way things are. In order for us to help see this Jesus Movement bear
fruit here in New Bern and beyond, we have to explore what can be, and not bask
or bemoan what is. As your rector, I don’t want this church (or any church for
that matter) to “get by” or to “survive.” I want Christ Church, New Bern, to
THRIVE, to BE BOLD in proclaiming this Jesus Movement. In order to do that, we
can’t simply look to the way it’s always been done. Gone are the days when the
church can open the doors and expect people to flow in. We have to identify
ways to take Jesus to people who need to hear that message of an unwavering,
unfiltered, holy love. Strategy sessions and hand wringing won’t always do the
trick either. We may end up stumbling upon the best ways, and we may fail a few
times as well. But if we trust in God to lead us, we know our labors will not
be in vain. We will find success even in what we think may be a failure. God
has ways of working things out in ways we cannot begin to imagine. That’s why
God is God, and we are not.
The
story of Ruth & Naomi & Boaz that we heard in our Old Testament lesson
this morning is a great example of how God can and often does go outside the
“norm” or “expected” to accomplish the Holy things that God wants to happen.
Naomi is a Jewish woman married to a Jewish man with two Jewish sons. They move
to an area lacking Jewish brides, so the two sons take Moabite wives and before
they can have children, the sons die, as does Naomi’s husband. Now, tradition
would hold that Naomi would go back to her people the greater Bethlehem area
and her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, would go back to their people. But
Ruth says, “No, I’m going to go with you, wherever that may be.” There’s this
statute in the laws of Moses called the Law of the Kinsman Redeemer. It
basically says that if a man dies and he and his wife are childless, it’s up to
one of that man’s kin, be it a brother or cousin, to have children with the
other man’s wife so that his name will live on. Ruth meets Boaz while they are
gleaning from the fields, and Naomi figures out that Boaz is related to her
husband and sons and therefore could be great “match” if you will for Ruth.
(Scripture doesn’t say if Boaz had other wives, but Ruth was likely not his
one-and-only.) Boaz takes Ruth for a wife and they have a son, Obed. Obed was
the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, the Psalmist and the King.
God
deviated from the expected route to fulfill the Divine Plan. Obed’s mother,
Ruth, King David’s great-grandmother, was a Moabite, someone who was not
supposed to be in the lineage of an Israelite King. God broke from the “norm”
when setting up a path to Jesus. Sometimes it makes us uncomfortable or warry
when God does what is unexpected, but I am convinced that that is how God keeps
us on our toes and paying attention. Who would have expected God to choose a
wondering, sometimes ornery people to make a great Nation? Yet, God chose the
Jews. Who would have expected God to choose a non-Jewish woman to carry on the
linage that would bring forth another unexpected choice for a King of Israel?
Who would have expected God to choose a small, out of the way place like
Nazareth to be the hometown of the Messiah? And even though in our Anglican
history, we have had plenty of amazing and prophetic preachers, who would have
expected God to choose one from our current time to be the 27th Presiding
Bishop of the Episcopal Church?
The
question is: What are we (you, me, Christ
Church) doing to make a path to Jesus for those who need to hear the
message? Whether the path is expected or unexpected, whether the path is as a
flat and straight as a coastal highway or as hilly and curvy as a mountain
pass, what are we doing to follow that path and walk with others along way that
leads to Jesus?
I
believe that we are continuing to find ways to be the hands, feet, and voice of
Jesus in the word. I believe that in
the years to come, the ways in which God is moving and leading us will become
clearer and clearer. Our prayer should be that our eyes and hearts will be open
to see God’s hand at work in the world about us.
“Unless
the Lord builds the house, their
labor is in vain who build it.”
Amen
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